I’m working on rebuilding our department’s website but facing some technical limitations. The IT team won’t give me access to modify the existing CMS templates or install server-side technologies like PHP and MySQL. All I can work with is basic HTML/CSS/JS files in a public directory.
I’m thinking about building something with a JavaScript framework, but the department managers need to be able to update content themselves. They’re not technical people so it needs to be user-friendly.
Does anyone know if there are content management solutions that work entirely in the browser without needing server-side code or databases? I’d prefer not to build everything from scratch if there’s already something out there.
have you considered static site generators like Jekyll or Gatsby? I’m curious though - how would your managers edit content without a backend? are you planning to use Contentful’s API or maybe Google Sheets as a makeshift CMS? what kind of content updates do they usually need to make?
I understand your situation; it can be challenging when technical restrictions limit your options. Based on my experience, utilizing a headless CMS such as Forestry or Netlify CMS in conjunction with a static site generator might be the best solution. These options provide user-friendly web interfaces for content editing while maintaining the separation from backend technologies. The changes are stored in JSON or markdown files, which your JavaScript framework can easily access. Alternatively, you could use browser localStorage, but it would require implementing a backup system yourself. Ultimately, the goal is to find a balance between user-friendliness for your managers and the technical constraints you’re facing.
a flat file CMS might be a good fit! try out grav or kirby, they don’t reqire databases. since u have just HTML/CSS/JS, consider making simple forms that save to JSON files. this way, ur managers will be able to edit easily and store data locally or push to GitHub Pages.